The campers and staff of National Chess Camp 2021.

When COVID-19 struck many of our favourite activities came to a stop. CIC’s founder Ted Winick, has created many chess events and initiatives over the years, including National Chess Camp, founded fourteen years ago as an adjunct to National Music Camp.

The camp takes place every August at Camp Wahanowin on the shores of beautiful Lake Couchiching. Of course, the pandemic meant that the camp did not happen in 2020, and it appeared for a time that it might be cancelled in 2021 as well. But, with careful planning and attention to safety guidelines (including COVID tests, social distancing and outdoor instruction wherever possible), some three hundred students (including nearly thirty chess campers) were able to safely play, learn and have fun!

Under the direction of two of Canada’s top players and chess educators, Goran Milicevic and Natalia Khoudagarian, along with CIC’s Keith Denning, our campers studied and played chess for four hours a day, and for the rest of the time? They swam, boated, rode the zipline, learned archery, played games, and attended the free concerts put on by the music faculty every evening! It was a truly magical week, and a very welcome return to normal for everyone involved.

We look forward to going back in 2022!